Rayvin

Tough one as a few on there are playing well. In truth I think it's a bit too early (for me at least) to be able to tell. Gonna go with Lascelles though. Maybe followed by Anita...?

I was tempted to ask actually, if anyone had any experience of being 'on the other side' of this, as it were. I went to an all boys school and I was definitely aware that the 'banter' tended to focus on specific people to the point where it became cruel. You would join in though, as the alternative was that you made yourself a target as well. Not proud of my role in that kind of thing either. School seems to behave a lot like the world might have before civilisation came along. You survive it however you can, come out the other end and ideally become a decent human being.

They don't have a lot of shit left though - they've gotten rid of most of them now haven't they? I can't think of any players who would leave them if they went down, exactly. They'd have the same players and even less ability to pull in decent new ones.

Are Wolves actually any good? Aside from losing 4-0 at home to Barnsley?

Aye the thunder was full on I never wake up during the night but that first clap was a house shaker.

His apology is eloquent as fuck, mind. Sounds like it was an overheated argument rather than a fight in the end: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/sep/15/joey-barton-rangers-fallout-after-celtic-defeat

Aye, I think this is one of the most dreaded threads on the forum now, with the possible exception of the Yes Gemmill thread.

Publicity stunt? Classic Joey though.

MF putting across really well what I was trying to convey. Great post.

Just be careful here as if they're older than 18 they could get in bother if they overdo it...

If it had been the other way round, we'd have had a few smileys in the match thread where it was decided, a few follow up pages on this thread about how they were handling it, and it would have been old news in about two weeks at most. If we'd still been going on 4 months later about how we relegated them I'd be embarrassed to be associated any of you We're in the division below them and they still have an inferiority complex. Because that's how they are as a city I'd argue.

That score isn't working for you mate....

Sounds like a safe way of doing it. Hopefully your younger son can just stand up to him and tell him to fuck off and it'll work - as I say, it did for me, once - but definitely best to have support. Fucking school politics, man.

Does it have to be alliterative now?

I was bullied too fwiw, including being attacked periodically, and I found that just standing my ground one day and yelling blue murder at this kid in front of quite a few other kids bothered him enough that he went looking for someone weaker in the end. Not a great resolution for the next kid down the line but there it is.

OK so there is a reason. I totally get that it's not a good one but there's clearly something here that the little fuckwit is attacking your lad for. Even if your kid fights back, if this guy is angry enough about what is effectively a low level crime of passion, it could just escalate. Especially if she's there. So two things on this - one is it'll probably blow over. Not saying don't do anything but the main goal is to keep your son's confidence up as that's the real thing that could harm him long term. Martial arts is actually a good way of doing this. The other thing is probably to confront this kid. If his two older brothers are going to walk him home, have them follow from behind in a non apparent way. If this kid starts on him, then they get involved. If he doesn't then just leave it. If the kid does start, what he'll probably do is begin with verbal abuse. I would encourage your son to give back on this as just standing your ground can solve these things. Especially knowing he has the relative safety of your other sons nearby. The main thing I reckon is to try and resolve this quickly. If it rumbles on then his grades will suffer. I'm surprised the police haven't offered to do more though. Or the school.

If he's being attacked outside of school then it definitely is a police issue. That said, do you know why it's happening? In particular? Surely this kid can't just specifically want to attack your son. There must be a reason.

We do of course have Louise Taylor for the Guardian in that boat And she is widely despised. A bit different I guess, since the Guardian is a national.

Aye, I'm not entirely sure what Sissoko would have been offering us were he still here. Certainly wouldn't have had him ahead of Ritchie. Maybe on the left but did he ever play there for us? Wouldn't have him ahead of Shelvey in the middle on current form. Guess he would have provided competition for places EDIT - although I guess what you can't know is how well we would have played down here with the standard of teams he'd be facing. Maybe he'd be tearing it up.

Was he effective

Villa are really making us look good this year!

I think essembee might explode if this continues

Even if we lose Shelvey we still have Ritchie, mind.

I can't quite believe the gulf in quality between this and the PL. Some of these teams come up and you think that a fair few from down here could go toe to toe with the lower PL teams but fucking hell I doubt it on this evidence.